The Card Game Every Backpacker Should Play in Their Hostel

The backpacker card game: Yaniv!

Wethink we’ve found it: theultimate icebreaker card game for when you meet a group of fellow travellersin ahostel. The game is called Yaniv, it’s super easy to learn, and before you know it you will have brought a group of people together from all walks of life that reside in your hostel. It’s the ultimate backpacker card game.All you need is a 54 deck of cards (which is most international playing cards), a pen and paper to keep score, and a group of two or more players.Aim of the Game:To have a lower total value of cards in your hand than the other players.Now, let’s go through the rules.

Picking up cards

Players must also pick up onecard during their turn. They can pick up a card from:

The top of the draw pile.

A card is thrown down in the dump pile from the previous player. If the last player threw down several cards, you can only pick the first or last card.

Always throw down a card before picking up a card.If players get through the draw pile, then save the last face-up card in the dump pile, shuffle the rest of the dump pile and stack them face down to make a new draw pile.

Calling “Yaniv”

When it is a player’s turn, their hand is at a value of five or less, and they think they have a lower value hand than all the other players, then that player cancall “Yaniv” and end the round.Note: a player can only call Yaniv at the beginning of their turn. Not after throwing and picking up cards.Now the round has ended and it’s time for the scoring!

Scoring

The object of scoring is to have as few points as possible. A player is out of the game when they reach a total over 200.When Yaniv is called, all players reveal their cards. Two situations can occur:

If the player who called Yaniv succeeded in getting the lowest hand value than the rest of the players’ hands, they get a score of 0 and the rest of the players get a score of the total value of their own hand.

If another player had the same or less value in their hand than the person who called Yaniv then the Yaniv-caller gets an automatic 30 points. The other players score the total value of their own hand, including the player who had a lower value than the Yaniv-caller.

One player is the score-keeper, keeping a record of the scores throughout the game. The last survivor (the player who doesn’t reach more than 200) is the winner!However, some crazy things can happen in the scoring:

If a player’s score reaches exactly 100, this reduces their overall score to 50.

If a player’s score reaches exactly 200, this reduces their overall score to 100.

The “Sneaky Sneaky” rule

Now you have the basics, add these rules for more frustration and legendary victories!

If a player throws a sequence of three (2-3-4 of diamonds, for example) and another player has a card in their hand to finish off that sequence totalling to a four-card sequence (with a 5 of diamonds or an Ace of diamonds in this example), then that player can throw down that card onto the dump pile, even if it isn’t their go next. Plus, they don’t pick up a card if they have sneaked this card in.

If a player throws three cards down of a rank (for example, 3,3,3 of hearts, clubs and spades) and another player has the card to complete the rank so all four cards of that rank are in the dump pile, they can throw that card down onto the dump pileeven if it isn’t their go next. Additionally, they don’t pick up a card if they have sneaked this card in.

This “sneaky sneaky” move can only be played before the next player plays their turn.